Tag Archives: starting a band

Ever wanted to start your own band? Create an art exhibit? Form a dance troupe? Or maybe you’ve dreamed about starting your own fashion company. All you need is motivation, creativity, and inspiration – plus possibly a few words of advice from Arne Johnson and Karen Macklin co-authors of the book Indie Girl – and you’ll be well on your way to launching the project of your dreams.

In each chapter of Indie Girl, Johnson and Macklin take girls through what it takes to kick off a creative project. Want to start a band? Well, you’ll need some instruments (unless you’ll be going a capella, of course!), rehearsal space, a microphone, a computer, and performance space (for all those sold-out concerts you’ll be rocking out at). So then you’ll need to learn a few of your favorite songs (over time, you’ll be writing your own), find someone who can create a beat or two on the drums, and you’re already halfway there. So take out those earphones, make your own music, and bump Avril off the Top 40 charts with your new hit single!

Perhaps starting a band and writing your own music isn’t on your to-do list, but you’ve always loved writing song lyrics or poetry. Why not hold a poetry slam, like we do here at Teen Voices? This way, you can empower yourself and others simply and beautifully with the written word. Poetry is a great form of self-expression, and a poetry slam enables teen girls who have been writing poems to read them out loud to an audience. In the chapter “Hold a Poetry Slam,” Indie Girl encourages teen girls to “share a vision, thought, emotion or political idea in verse.” First things first, you’ll need to find a location for your event, recruit a few poets, and create a board of members to help out organizing, producing, judging etc. Since a poetry slam is a competition, judges and scorekeepers are necessary. But don’t let that discourage you. Don’t let the fear of not winning keep you silent! Want to read more on poetry slams? Check out our article “Speaking Up Is Slammin’” by teen editors Tekeisha Meade and Mirna Ortiz.

Indie Girl is a tool for launching your dream into reality. The book is just a little (really great) guide to help you along your journey. Just don’t substitute it for the really important tool: you!

Indie Girl: From Starting a Band to Launching a Fashion Company, Nine Ways to Turn Your Creative Talent into Reality

About Teen Voices

Teen Voices is an intensive journalism mentoring and leadership development program for teen girls in Boston. Our mission is to support and educate teen girls, amplify their voices, and create social change through media.

Through this program, and with submissions from girls around the world, the teens create an internationally distributed online and print magazine by, for, and about teen girls. Teen Voices is positive and empowering, and amplifies girls' real voices in a world filled with media focused on what girls look like—not what they think. Join us at teenvoices.com!